Ferdinand Remy

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Iron grave cross of Ferdinand Remy in Alf / Mosel

Ferdinand Remy (born July 21, 1788 in Bendorf ; † April 12, 1848 in Alf (Mosel) ) was a German councilor and ironworks owner .

Life

After completing his schooling, Remy went to England and stayed in London from 1813 to 1819 . Here he was visited by his brother Louis from the Wendener Hütte (a small charcoal furnace, fresh fire and hammer mill from the Olpe district ). Louis Remy, who was already an experienced ironworker and knew about the furnace refurbishment process common in England, encouraged his brother Ferdinand to travel together to the county of Staffordshire . They looked at the ironworks there with the intention of bringing the still new puddling process with an attached rolling mill to Germany . Ferdinand was so impressed by this trip that he made the decision to set up a similar ironworks in Germany. Back home, he borrowed money from his brothers and traveled again to England to the ironworks districts there to receive training in metallurgy and processing using rolling mills . Here he worked from 1819 to 1824 as an ironworker in various puddling and rolling mills and thus acquired the necessary knowledge over the years.

Sculpture Ferdinand Remy in Alf

After he had worked his way up from the third man at the puddling furnace to foreman and ultimately to master craftsman, Remy returned to Germany and notified his cousins ​​on the "Rasselstein", the brothers Christian (* 1783) and Friedrich Remy (1789–1827), sons from Carl Wilhelm Remy (1747-1817) from Bendorf in his Rasselsteiner Eisenwerk Gesellschaft HW Remy & Kons. ( Rasselstein ) in Neuwied to talk to them about building a test puddle furnace. One wanted to check whether Rhenish pig iron was suitable for puddling. The first puddle furnace was built by Ferdinand Remy in 1824 and with the help of English puddle masters and workers, the first puddles could be forged on Rasselstein.

In the same year there were differences of opinion between the cousins ​​and Christian Remy, who was entrusted with the management of the company. In August 1824, cousins ​​Wilhelm Gideon (* 1783) and Louis wanted to get together with their brother Ferdinand, who were all partners in the Remy, Hoffmann u. Co. were to participate in the Rasselstein-based company. However, when they wanted to separate the new puddling plant as an independent plant under the direction of Ferdinand Remy, who had insisted on this demand, Christian Remy refused and wrote his cousin Wilhelm the following letter on August 30, 1824:

“Impositions that would deprive us of all the advantages of the new company. What would one think after we had been working in front of everyone for 4 years on the construction of the puddle furnace and made the necessary preparations so that now, after reaching my goal, I would go for a walk on our own work and not be allowed to worry about anything? He [Ferdinand Remy] wanted to take my brother and me almost every share in the direction of the business, which we could just as well and perhaps better than he could set up. We could not admit this because of our honor and we have certainly done it "

- Christian Remy : Annals of the Association for Nassau antiquity and historical research

When it was now clear that there would be no agreement with the cousins, Ferdinand began to look around in his home country for another suitable location for a new ironworks he had planned. Since he chose water as the driving force for the new rolling mill and not the steam engine, which at that time was not considered suitable for it, he looked for a location near a water-rich stream in the Westerwald and the Eifel . When he finally found what he was looking for at the confluence of the Üßbach and Alfbach rivers, he and his brother Louis, whom he had meanwhile brought home, began to survey the land for the planned plant. Since the land to be acquired for this purpose was distributed among 54 different landowners, Johann Mentges, who came from Alf, was commissioned as an intermediary between the many parties. After all negotiations were successful, the brothers Ferdinand and Louis submitted a permit and building license application to the Royal Government Office in Trier on May 10, 1825 , whereupon a license was issued on January 9, 1926.

Old dam of the Remy ironworks in Alfbachtal

After the plant, which was built according to the plans of the Prussian building councilor Carl Ludwig Althaus (1788–1864) and Eduard Remy (1799–1871) from Liège , another brother was brought to the company as a partner in the spring , it was on June 5, 1827 so far that the first puddle oven could be lit. At the beginning Remy had to employ suitably qualified English specialists, as the local workers still had to be trained. Most of them came from the neighboring towns of Alf and Bengel . Another advantage of this new production site was the nearby Moselle, as it was very suitable for transporting and procuring the raw materials necessary for production. The spherosiderite required for the production of pig iron was obtained from Bendorf and Roteisenstein was supplied from ore mines in the Lahn-Dill area . The charcoal required for energy production could be obtained from the wood of local forests, but was later replaced by coal from the Saarland. Due to the strong demand for "Alfer Eisen", more puddle ovens were soon built, until finally 8 ovens were in operation. At the same time as the first puddling furnace, a rolling mill was set up, an additional welding furnace was put into operation and a new rolling mill with coarse and medium rolling mills was built.

The customers of the easily workable iron included almost all master blacksmiths in the Hunsrück , the Eifel and the Moselle region. Alfer iron was used to produce wheel tires, shoe nails, banding, hoof sticks and cutting irons, as well as special profiles that were required in the manufacture of rifles.

Buyers of these profiles included the royal rifle factories in Danzig , Erfurt and Spandau , the royal Bavarian rifle factory in Amberg and the private rifle factories of Dreyse and later the Mauser brothers in Oberndorf . In order to be able to meet the high standards in this segment, the so-called rifle iron was subjected to a three-fold puddling process in order to reduce the carbon content produced during iron production from over 2.3% to under 1.6%. The iron was thus easy to forge and received the special mark "Three times refined" . To make it easier to recognize, the flat iron produced in the factory was given the brand name "Alf" when it was rolled and "Alf" was stamped into the bars and collars of the square and round profiles .

Old house of the Remy family

In order to be able to meet the increased needs of the iron and steel works, a new medium and fine iron rolling mill was built on the Üßbach at the beginning of 1836 under the direction of Hermann Remy, who was Ferdinand's nephew. The concession document required for the new building for the so-called "New Plant" was issued on March 12, 1836. At the same time, the Remy family had a new house built.

On February 2, 1838, the company Ferdinand Remy & Co. signed a contract with the railway management of the Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , which provided for the delivery of railroad tracks for standard gauge . The rails from the Alfer plant were delivered from the spring of 1838 and laid in a first section between Düsseldorf and Erkrath ( Düsseldorf – Elberfeld railway line ) and put into operation on October 15, 1838, making the line the first railway line in 1838 after it was commissioned West Germany at all became. When Ferdinand Remy died in 1848 and was buried in Alf with great sympathy, the mayor of Zell Johann Coll wrote in his chronicle of the village of Alf, published in 1851, when engineers between Bertrich and Alf began to level the area:

Ferdinand-Remy-Platz in Alf with a memorial plaque

“It was believed that a road should be built until it was finally revealed that the Remy von Bendorf brothers wanted to build an ironworks. I made it my duty to support this company in all parts and to the best of my ability, and so I saw this beautiful establishment gradually emerge. The poor man found work and food there and refrained from stealing wood and outlawing, all the more since Mr. Remy kept strict police with his workers and fired anyone who dealt with this illegal act. ... If the hut had to be celebrated because of the lack of water, these people were not dismissed but employed in a different way. In the years of hunger he had soup cooked for his workers and in 1826 he bought a batch of fruit in order to get cheap bread for the Alfern and contented himself with repayment in pieces and very modest interests. This family was not only a support but also a consolation for the poor. ... Not only the place Alf mourned him, but the whole area and everyone who knew him, and as long as I live I will remember the philanthropist, the prudent man Ferdinand Remy. "

- Mayor Johann Coll from the Zell office : Chronicle of the village of Alf (1823–1847)

In his honor, the Ferdinand-Remy-Straße in Alf and in 1985 the Ferdinand-Remy-Platz was named. The memorial plaque bears the inscription: "In memory of the founder of the Alfer Eisenwerk 1826"

family

Ferdinand Remy had been married to Albertine Berta Margareta Hoffmann (1804-1892) from Bendorf , a daughter of the married couple Wilhelm Anton Hoffmann (merchant from Bendorf) and Johanna Jakob d'Orville , since 1828 . Both had three daughters together, Johanna Wilhelmine Emma (* 1929 Bendorf), Johanna Amalie (* 1831 Bendorf) and Therèse (* 1832, † 1836 Alf). After the death of her husband, Berta Remy moved back to her house in Bendorf, which was the center of the Remy family there. There she lived with her daughter Emma (1829-1910) and Heinrich Reuleaux (1825-1899) who had been married since 1851.

Arras Castle

Arras Castle, Dyckerhoff Villa

In 1826 Ferdinand Remy acquired the castle ruins of Burg Arras and the 70 hectare forest that went with it. After Remy's death, his daughters inherited Arras Castle, which they then sold to the winery owner Barzen from Alf around 1850.

Marienburg

Marienburg Moselle 1900

When Stephan Kallfelz from Merl wanted to sell the Marienburg ruins, including the monastery garden and property, in 1838, District Administrator Friedrich Moritz , Ferdinand Remy and a son of Kallfelz acquired them together.

literature

  • Martin Bauer: Das Alfer Eisenhüttenwerk , (part of a thesis in geography in the Cusanus-Gymnasium in Wittlich, school year 1989/90), in Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Cochem-Zell 1994, pp. 62–65.
  • Alfons Friderichs (Ed.): Remy, Ferdinand . In: Personalities of the Cochem-Zell District, Kliomedia, Trier 2004, ISBN 3-89890-084-3 , p. 291.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Creation and commissioning of the Alfer ironworks. From Wilhelm Remy in Düsseldorf. Stahl und Eisen, magazine for German metallurgy, October 22, 1914. In: dilibra.bg.polsl.pl. Retrieved February 14, 2019 .
  2. ↑ 150 YEARS • EXISTING Rasselsteiner Eisenwerk Gesellschaft, Rasselstein bei Neuwied, memorandum, To commemorate the 150-year association of the Rasselsteiner Eisenwerk with the Remy family (1760–1910), page 31. In: dilibri.de. Retrieved February 11, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Annalen des Verein für Nassauische Alterthumskunde und Geschichtsforschung Thirty-fifth volume, 1905, Wiesbaden, Kommissionsverlag von Rud. Bechtold & Comp. 1906, pp. 73-74. In: book.google.de. Retrieved February 12, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Handbook of technical chemistry: for use in teaching in the Königl. Trade Institute and the Provincial Trade Schools of Prussia. State. By Ernst Ludwig Schubarth, third, very increased edition, second volume, with 7 copper plates, Berlin in Commission at Rücker and Püchler, 1839, p. 34. In: book.google.de. Retrieved February 12, 2019 .
  5. ^ Floor plan of occupational science and occupational hygiene, by Benno Chajes, second edition, Berlin, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH, 1929, 2. The puddling process, p. 150. In: books.google.de. Retrieved February 14, 2019 .
  6. ^ Ilse Müller, Günther Schweizer, Peter Werth: The Remy family .: Kannenbäcker and entrepreneur . LEGAT-Verlag, Tübingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-932942-36-5 , p. 376 ( Google Books [accessed October 29, 2019] Register of Family Names; searched for Albertine Margareta Hoffmann).
  7. ↑ Remy was "generous" and "a support" to poor. In: rhein-zeitung.de. June 15, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2019 : "Ferdinand Remy, born on January 21, 1788 in Bendorf, died on April 12, 1848 ..."
personal data
SURNAME Remy, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ironworks owner
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1788
PLACE OF BIRTH Bendorf
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1848
Place of death Alf (Moselle)